Nuoc Chay Da Mon
by TheGirlWhoRemembers
Summary: "Water flows, rock erodes" - Vietnamese proverb. Desi lets the team see the woman behind the snarky soldier, if only for a night. Miles away, Jack worries about his boy, while in LA, the kids look after each other, as always. Episode tag to 3.19, Friends and Enemies and Borders.


**MACGYVER'S RESIDENCE**

**LA**

* * *

In the kitchen, Riley glanced outside, towards the deck, where a distinctly lost-in-his-own-head-looking Mac was staring at a part of the bomb that'd come far too close to blowing Bozer to smithereens in a glass bottle. Bozer and Matty were exchanging a concerned look behind Mac's back, and, as Riley watched, the older woman reached out and squeezed Bozer's shoulder gently as he sighed, bit his lip and stared into the fire.

Riley gave a little sigh too, her own expression concerned. She really wished Jack were here at that moment.

The family's problems were always easier to confront and solve or even just live with when the whole family was there.

She pushed that thought aside for the moment, turning her mind to more immediate concerns, and walked over to the fridge, opened it and examined the contents.

There was something that made her wrinkle her nose that she was pretty sure was one of Mac's science experiments, which she wasn't going to touch with a ten foot pole. There also appeared to be a couple of tuna steaks (far beyond her cooking capabilities) and a half-eaten apple pie from a local diner, as well as some old Chinese takeout and a bowl of paperclips, which explained why there was a bowl-shaped tub of hummus on the coffee table.

(Mac must have gotten distracted.)

Handily, there was also a packet of bacon, three-quarters of a loaf of bread and a carton of eggs, and she knew where Bozer and Mac kept the really good maple syrup (with no added high-fructose corn syrup whatsoever).

French toast was one of the handful of recipes that even Bozer agreed she'd mastered.

Riley straightened up and called out to Desi, who was leaning on the kitchen island.

'Any objections to breakfast for dinner we should know about?'

'Not if you notify me three business days in advance.' Riley raised a brow sceptically at her. Desi gave that little smirk of hers, and Riley just shook her head as the other woman spoke with a shrug. 'Don't worry about dinner. I-' The doorbell rang, and Desi's smirk widened a touch as she strode towards the front door. 'Right on cue.' Desi checked the peephole, then opened the door to reveal a college-aged Asian guy holding bags and bags of takeout. She smiled at him, paid him a generous tip, then took the bags, Riley stepping forward automatically to take the rest, before helping Desi unpack the food. She recognized pho and banh mi and spring rolls and rice-paper rolls and even broken rice, but there was a noodle dish with what looked suspiciously like pigs' feet in it, and a rice porridge that seemed to have little hearts floating around in it. Desi smirked when she saw the look on Riley's face, pointing at the porridge and pigs' feet. 'That's the good stuff.'

Riley nodded slowly, not sure if Desi was messing with them or testing them or genuinely liked pigs' feet and offal porridge.

Knowing Desi, it was probably some semi-contradictory mix of the three.

'I'll take your word for it.' She unpacked a series of sauces that smelled a lot like fish sauce. 'This is a lot of food.'

Desi arched an eyebrow slightly.

'If I've noticed Mac's post-mission appetite, you must have by now.'

That made Riley nod and give a little chuckle.

'Yeah, he'll eat like a third of this, and then a whole pint of ice-cream for dessert.' She paused. 'It is _so_ not fair.'

If _she _did that, she wouldn't fit into her jeans within a month. Mac did a lot of exercise, and the brain _did _burn a lot of calories, and he _did_ go long stretches when he hardly ate or didn't eat at all when on missions or caught up in something, but _still._

Desi nodded, a wry smile on her face.

'Yeah, I hear you.'

* * *

**EASTERN EUROPE**

**(THE EXACT LOCATION IS CLASSIFIED)**

* * *

_Just saying, brother, they were definitely gonna eat 'em. I don't care if there was some fancy-schmancy sacrifice beforehand, bottom line, they were gonna eat 'em._

_Always the cute and furry ones you have to worry about, as I always tell ya._

Jack smiled to himself as he finally found time to text his boy back.

He and Mac had had this debate many, many times before, but there was nothing like a little _Star Wars _talk to get your head out of the darkness.

And God knew, Jack needed that right now.

This chase was wearing on him.

So was being away from his family, _missing _them, _worrying _about them.

There was no-one he'd trust more than Dez to watch their backs when he couldn't, but what wouldn't he give to be back there, back home, back with his family?

Jack shook himself a little, muttering under his breath.

'Come on, Dalton, head in the game. Get Kovac, then bounce back home to the City of Angels for Skeeball and pizza…and Boze's burgers and kicking your boy's butt 'cause he owes you a b-ball rematch!'

His phone chimed with a reply to his text message.

_You have never said that to me, Jack._

He sighed, concern clear across his face. It was the middle of the night in LA.

Mac had to be burning the candle at all three ends _again _(or probably more accurately, _still_), trying to save the world, save his dad and be there for his old man to boot.

Despite what Jack had told him last time they'd talked.

He shook his head, expression equal parts deep concern and fond exasperation.

The kids _never _listened.

He pressed the call button.

'It's the middle of the night, brother. Am I gonna have to fly over and whoop your ass to make you go to bed?'

He really wished he could.

* * *

**MACGYVER'S RESIDENCE**

**LA**

* * *

'…I'm totally leading the count, thank you very much!'

Phone to his ear, Mac raised his eyebrow sceptically, finally putting the little glass bottle down in one of his desk drawers. He flopped into his desk chair.

'You're forgetting Caracas. And Perth. And, come to think of it, Suva.'

'Suva don't count! We agreed it didn't, man!'

Mac smirked.

'I have no recollection of that whatsoever.'

Jack snorted.

'Oh, convenient. Real convenient. Mr Near-Didactic-Memory conveniently forgets-'

'_Eidetic._ And it was definitely _inconvenient_, to say the _least,_ that I got hit in the head with a coconut!'

Whatever Jack said in response, it was drowned out by a loud scream, in a voice that both Mac and Jack were very familiar with.

'Sorry, Jack, I…I got to go.'

* * *

**EASTERN EUROPE**

**(THE EXACT LOCATION IS CLASSIFIED)**

* * *

Jack ran a hand through his hair as his partner hung up.

That'd been Bozer screaming.

And he recognized that I-feel-really-guilty-and-am-trying-to-let-go-of-it-'cause-you-told-me-to-but-failing tone in Mac's voice, alright.

He _really, really_ wished he was back home, back where he belonged, with his pack, right now.

He couldn't shake that gut feeling that they really, really needed him.

* * *

**MACGYVER'S RESIDENCE**

**LA**

* * *

Mac ran towards Bozer's room, passing the couch, which had askew blankets flung over it and a pillow half-hanging off it.

He passed through the open door of the house's master bedroom, to find Bozer sitting up in bed, breathing hard like he'd just run miles, eyes unfocused, and Riley crouched down next to him, hand on his.

'…it's okay, Boze, you're okay. Mac and I are here, and we're not going to leave you…'

As Bozer took in deep gulps of air, Mac and Riley just exchanged a worried glance, tinged with sadness.

They'd both seen a lot, been through a lot.

Bozer…well, until fairly recently, Bozer hadn't.

(At least, not quite to the level they had. There was a very good reason he didn't talk about Josh.)

As great as it was to have him in on their secret, to not have to hide from family, as much of a surprise package of an agent as he was, as deceptively strong as he was…they'd be lying if they hadn't occasionally wished he didn't have to see these things, wished that they could protect him.

Still…Bozer made Mac's house a home, honestly. Bozer was always there with his super-special hot chocolate and a silly joke or story and some really killer burgers and a hug when they needed him.

They shared a firm nod of agreement.

It was their turn to be there for him.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, Mac was whipping up Bozer's super-special secret-recipe hot chocolate, while Riley scooped chocolate ice-cream out of the tub, topping it generously with pretzels and caramel sauce.

Bozer eyed his BFF suspiciously as he worked on the hot drink.

'Bro…how long have you known about my super-secret, highly-classified, totally-compartmentalized secret ingredient?'

Mac stirred the hot chocolate, looking distinctly sheepish.

'Uh…for the last decade?'

Bozer stared at him for a moment, astounded and gaping a bit like a fish, which made Riley give a chuckle, before gesticulating wildly.

(Not quite as wildly as usual, but enough to set Mac and Riley somewhat at ease. Bozer was definitely still Bozer.)

'And you just let me think you didn't for all these years?'

'Uh…yeah.'

Bozer blinked twice, then reached out over the counter and hugged his BFF as best as he could.

'Love you, bro.'

Mac smiled, ladling out hot chocolate.

'Love you too, Boze.'

Riley nudged a bowl of ice-cream and a spoon towards Bozer, which made him grin at her.

'Love you too, lil' sis.'

Riley smirked, sitting down with her own bowl of ice-cream.

'Gotta look after my_ lil'_ bro, right?'

That got Bozer to shoot her a _look._ Mac smiled and shook his head with a half-chuckle, pointing to Bozer, then to Riley, with his spoon.

'You know, as Boze is older, he'd be the big brother, Ri.'

Riley shot Mac a _look,_ before realization dawned on her, and she glanced at Bozer. A similar look of realization crossed his face after a moment. The two of them smirked, then turned on Mac.

'Thanks for pointing that out, Mac.'

'You gonna also point out what that makes you, bro?'

Riley's smirk widened.

'Or, more accurately, _lil' bro?_'

* * *

_I walked myself right into that one._

* * *

AN: Hope you guys liked that! Pigs' feet are pretty great, chicken hearts far less so in my opinion (though I like several other kinds of offal – pho with beef tendon is AMAZING!). Desi would totally eat something that most people would consider 'disgusting' with a straight face just to try and freak people out, methinks. In other not-news, I still miss Jack, and I do love the kids spending time with each other. I took Mac, Bozer and Riley's relative ages off the actors' – I'm fairly certain Tristin Mays is slightly older than Lucas Till, from memory…

Thoughts on the ep:

Aww…classic _MacGyver, _not complaining! Desi and Jack totally nailed Mac not having any sense of self-preservation, and I did like the little bit of tension and friction they had between them during this ep, with their different ways of looking at the world. In general, I liked Desi in this ep – it's definitely in-character for her and Mac to have that tension and disagreement, but I also liked the parallel with her family's situation (which I was expecting as soon as I saw the press release, but definitely welcomed) – it was a pretty good way of bringing the softer version of Desi to the forefront and learning more about her backstory (gotta say, having an older brother and a really tough mom explains a fair bit about her…). She also finally showed up for dinner, which was always going to be important character-development-wise. I honestly thought it'd take something bigger, but am not complaining about it being more gradual than super-dramatic. A couple of surprises about Desi in this episode – from her conversations with Sana, I was surprised about two things. Firstly – Desi is only about thirty years old, which is notably younger than I thought she was; I was thinking mid-thirties, closer in age to Levy Tran. Given everything she's done in her life – went to Ranger school, served for years in an elite military unit, went to college, served with Jack before Jack met Mac – it seems far too young. (I do wonder if perhaps thirty years was just to the nearest whole decade or something – which doesn't seem like Desi – because 1989 also puts her family in one of the very last groups of 'boat people' to leave Vietnam for Hong Kong, and in the group that had far more limited resettlement/were far less likely to be resettled into the US and generally very marginalized…and I just don't quite see how she could have done all of these things in such a short time, nor do I really think she comes across as being only thirty – she seems older…) Secondly, from the way she talks about pregnancy, has Desi been pregnant before? Does Desi have a kid somewhere?!

With the B-plot with Bozer…poor Bozer! (He has had a really, really, really terrible couple of weeks!) I also really liked the way Riley stayed with him, made him not give up. Though, although I think the Bozer/Riley vibe is definitely platonic right now, I think they laid the siblings thing on a _little _too thick…then again, I do ship Bozer/Riley, so I'm probably biased.

Big reveal – some bombmaker who is better than The Ghost is gunning for Mac's dad, and it's personal. Anyone else think that this could still somehow tie in to the bomb that The Ghost has left for Mac somewhere in the world? And/or the reported guest appearance by Emerson Brooks (Charlie) to come in two eps? And/or has something to do with Jonah Walsh?


End file.
